Just Us Girls #722 - Word Week

Lisa is the host for Word Week at Just Us Girls and this is the word.

Very appropriate for the month of April, don't you think?

I pulled out my Taylored Expressions rainbow kit to make my rather CAS card.  It has stencils, dies, arched sentiments and other fun things to use on a card.  The rainbow was cut from white cardstock, colored with Distress Inks and a couple of the arches stamped.  Stitched clouds float on the bottom with the front one popped up.  

What will you make using rain on your card?  The Design Team and our guest Colleen have plenty of inspiration for you over on the blog.  Be sure to check them out and make a card for our gallery.  We'd love to see you there.

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Time Out #238

It's the Inspired By Words challenge at Time Out.  "Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends."

This challenge is being sponsored by Varada Sharma and the winner will receive $15 credit to her digital store.

I only have one end of the rainbow but there is a pot of gold there.  The pot is a cauldron from MFT, cut in black and sprayed with Mica Spray for a metal look. I drew an arc and hand cut each of the colors for the rainbow.  After they were glued down, I added the gold Celebration Confetti from PPP.  The upper corner looked a little bare so I added some clouds from PTI, stamping the sentiment from Altenew on one of them.  What looks like a black border is actually gold cardstock. 

Let's head on over to see what the Design Team has done with these words.  You'll be amazed.

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Time Out #235

It's time for another challenge at Time Out  and we want you to be inspired by this photo.

Here's a larger image so you can see the detail and get a better idea of what you can use to make a card.

Of course my eye went directly to the bicycle.

I started with the background, masking off the road to make the sky with MFT's cloud stencil.  The bike from SSS's Beautiful Ride is colored with artist markers.  For color I added some balloons from Simon's Big Birthday Wishes.  I wish the balloons had a black outline but those were the only ones I had that didn't overpower the bike. lol  I thought the sentiment from Your Next Stamp fit the card well.  

This challenge is being sponsored by Doodlebugs.  The winner will receive a $25 store credit.  For more inspiration please check out what the Design Team and our guest designer Toni have made. 

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Time Out #234

 It's Words to be Inspired By at Time Out. 

You can be inspired by one or more words, a phrase or the feeling you get.  I kind of went with the entire saying. 

I masked off the Bristol cardstock diagonally down the middle and used Distress Inks to color each side. A die cut sun from EbyE and clouds from PTI speak to the summer light, winter shade portion of the saying.  The sentiment is from Dare2B Artzy. 

Need more inspiration.  Check out the Design Team's cards.  They have some fabulous ones for you to see.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Top Flight Stamps and they are offering a $25 store credit to the winner.  Better get making your "Inspired by Words" card. 

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Just UsGirls #670 -Word Week

The word of the week at Just Us Girls as chosen by Elizabeth is  

I got out a set I HAD to have and only used once.

It's actually a kit from Taylored Expressions and has a lot of different components.  It includes stencils for the arches, stamps for the stars and dots, dies for the clouds (plus smaller clouds) and sentiments.  There is also a die for a rainblow that includes a heart so I added a little one from Altenew in the middle. 

There should be a lot of colorful cards on the blog and in the gallery this week.  Will yours be one of them? For inspiration please check out what our guest Michele and the rest of the Design Team have made.

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Just Us Girls #543 - Word Week

Carol is our host at Just Us Girls and she has chosen this for our Word Week challenge.

I've been seeing a lot of rainbow challenges around blogland so I'm glad I broke down and bought the set from Taylored Expressions.

I used the stencil and Distress Inks to make the rainbow.  Although you can't see them I pearl embossed some Xes over the red and winked the heart.  The clouds and sentiment are from the set.

The Just Us Girls page is full of brightly colored rainbows that the Design Team has made.  We'd love for you to add yours to the gallery.

Addicted to CAS #185

Ceal is our host for this challenge at Addicted to CAS and she has chosen this as her code word.

For once I started with the sentiment which came from PTI.  I cut strips of cardstock for my rainbow, adding a circle die for the sun peeking out from under a cloud.

Why not check out how the Design Team used the code word .  Hopefully they inspire you to make a card for the challenge.

Happy Little Stampers Christmas - April

For April, the challenge at Happy Little Stampers Christmas is:

I don't often do scenes on my cards but I had to pull out my favorite Inside Bear from EbyE to make my card.

First I made a snowy day sky with MFT clouds and cut a slope from SSS.  Then I colored the Bear Ware bits and pieces with PolyChromos pencils and arranged them on the background.  I thought the sentiment from PB fit the Santa bear perfectly. 

Festive animals are optional for your card.  Will you use one or do something else?  The Design Team can't wait to see your card in our gallery.

Just Us Girls #480 - Photo Week

It's photo week at Just Us Girls and Maria has chosen a bright and festive photo for us.

I pulled out my long neglected SSS balloon dies to make my card.

A variety of patterned paper was used along with the SSS sentiment stamp and some hand drawn strings.  The MFT cloud stencil gives an airy background.

Our guest designer, Greta Hess, and the rest of the team have cards to inspire you.  Why not make a card for this week's challenge.  It would put you in the running for our guest designer in May.

Twofer Card Challenge #12

I always look forward to the Twofer Challenge.  It makes me think about design and different ways to use my stamps and dies.  This month's prompt is

I pulled out my SSS dies and went looking for paper.  I found some leftovers of Brusho and alcohol ink backgrounds and they became my balloons.

The cheer card on the left uses the alcohol ink scrap.

I also found the already cloud embossed panel and added a die cut cloud heat embossed with the Stampendous sentiment.  You can see the shine better here.

How lucky was it that I actually had three small Brusho pieces in primary colors perfect for a birthday card.

I tied button thread to each and then using a needle punched through the letters on the PTI sentiment.  The top two are foam mounted.

This was such a fun challenge and I can't wait to see what next month brings.

CASology #327

It's a sunny albeit cold day here but it's cloudy at CASology.  That's their cue word for this week.

A few stenciled  raindrops are falling from the cloud made with an edge die cut.  The sentiment for this get well card is from MFT.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy your day!

CAS(E) This Sketch #259

I struggled with my card for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch and I don't know why.  Here's the sketch.

I knew the image I wanted to use for the circle but couldn't figure out what to do with the vertical panel.  After much playing I settled on this.  Meh.

I watched a couple of videos on how to do the clouds.  Some people do a fantastic job with them and I tried several times using both a die and a hand cut scallop in both blue and gray.  These are done with Hickory Smoke DI.  The images and sentiment are from EH and colored with Zigs.

I was at Circle this morning and we signed cards for three people that are having health issues and I know of a few more.  This card will definitely come in handy.

Thank you for dropping by.  I hope you are doing well.

CAS(E) This Sketch #195

This is my second post today but I HAD to make a card for CAS(E) This Sketch and the deadline is fast approaching.  The sketch reminded me of stormy skies.

PTI clouds were cut from Soft Stone and inked at the bottom with Altenew Evening Gray and at the top with HA Unicorn White.  Evening Gray also inked the card base and stamped the sentiment from MFT.

The first snow of the season is falling right now.  I'm hoping it doesn't stick.  I'm not ready for winter.

Tic Tac Toe #6 and CASology #190

This may be one of the CASest (is that a word?) cards I've ever made.

A MFT raindrop stencil is the background for a couple of PTI clouds, one of which is stamped with a HA sentiment.  While the clouds themselves aren't silver lined, my panel is, although it looks black in the photo.  The inspiration for my card is the diagonal row in the Tic Tac Toe challenge - showers, clean and simple, and clouds.

CASology is running a weather challenge so I'm sending the card there too.

Thanks for dropping by.

Muse # 157, CASology #189 and Mod Squad

I have three cards for you today, one for each of three challenges.
For Muse:

Here's Anita's card that was my inspiration.

I masked off the sentiment strip and stamped the Altenew flowers on either side.  Because my flowers didn't cover all along the mask, I drew a couple of lines.  A light wash of DI finishes it off.

For CASology:

Their cue word was

and of course that meant I had to use my WPlus9 DoodleBuds and then added a little doodle frame of my own.  I also did a light wash on this card using Altenew inks.  Did you know they are great for watercoloring?

Last but not least is a card for Mod Squad.  I've not entered this challenge before but a couple of my teamies from Just Us Girls are the hostesses and . . .well, I thought I'd better support them.  The challenge is "The Rainbow Connection" and this is what I came up with  for you, Judy and Vicki.

The stamps are from Hero Arts.  I've had them for a while and never used them.  I cut a circle, stamped and colored the rainbow with DI, then embossed the remaining card with a Clouds ef.  I am totally out of foam and no place locally to get any more so I cut a coaster to pop up my circle.

ETA:  Thanks to Jen, I'm sending this card to A Blog Named Hero.  They have a rainbow challenge going.

As you can see, I should have stamped the sentiment first.  Maybe this will be my entry into Darnell's BooBoo challenge on April Fool's Day.

Thanks for dropping by and making it to the end.